1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communications, and in particular relates to a recorder and player for enhanced television systems.
2. Background Information
The Internet and the World Wide Web provide users with a rich source of information. Indeed, the Internet has infiltrated many aspects of everyday life, and is extremely popular because of its ease of access and ease of use.
There is an increasing integration of Internet technology/features with conventional communication media. Enhanced or interactive television, for example, merges Internet capabilities with television broadcasts. With enhanced television technology, content creators (e.g., broadcasters) transmit hypertext markup language (HTML) data along with the traditional audiovisual signals, thereby allowing viewers to interact with the television broadcast via the Internet. For instance, while watching an enhanced television program broadcasted by a particular network, the viewer may be provided with enhanced features on the television screen that allows the viewer to access the network""s web site for additional programming information.
With other systems, the viewer may be provided with appliances or xe2x80x9creceiversxe2x80x9d that store the programming content as it is broadcasted. Such programming content is stored in the user""s computer hard drive, for example, without having to use a videocassette recorder and videocassette. ReplayTV(trademark) and TiVo(trademark) systems are examples.
The Advanced Television Enhancement Forum""s (ATVEF) Enhanced Content Specification, version 1.1, revision 26, 1998-1999 (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cATVEF specificationxe2x80x9d) has been published to provide uniformity among different enhanced television content creators, transport operators, and receivers. The ATVEF specification provides standards for the transmission and processing of triggers, resources, announcements and content that are associated with an enhanced television transmission.
However, even with the ATVEF specifications, existing enhanced television technologies still suffer from a number of drawbacks. There is often a lack of satisfactory synchronization between announcements, triggers, and content. There are also, at times, incompatibility issues between Transport Type A and Transport Type B (e.g., ATVEF transport types) transmission and reception hardware and software used by these existing enhanced television systems, including the inability to satisfactorily record incoming triggers and/or resources. Furthermore, complex components or complicated customization may need to be provided to existing users"" receivers in order to provide users with the full benefits/features of enhanced television.
Accordingly, improvements in enhanced television systems are desirable.